Saturday, August 27, 2011

Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs Are The Worst

Our master bath has a sconce with a bunch of 60W bulbs in it. If you leave the lights on and the doors closed for a while, the place heats up like an Easy Bake Oven. We decided to swap out the incandescents in the sconce for some CFLs, figuring it would solve the heat problem. I swapped one bulb and checked it out. The thing stuck out like a colostomy bag out of the light fixture.

The CFL has some kind of ballast on the fixture end that makes it longer than the normal bulb. It wrecks the aesthetics of the sconce. If we used them, we'd have to completely replace the sconce.

On the CFL package, there's a warning that the things contain mercury and you can't just throw them out when they die. You have to recycle them properly by taking them to a CFL collection center. Awesome. Now when the light bulbs die, I have to make a special trip to a recycling center.

CFLs are supposed to help stop Global Warming Climate Change. I'll need to throw out my existing sconce and buy a new one and then burn gas driving around disposing of the dead CFLs later. Yay! We're saving the planet!

Meanwhile, the cultists who scream at us about Global Warming Climate Change are taking multiple private jets to vacations and living in huge mansions. At the same time, nations with populations much larger than ours are not doing anything to prevent Global Warming Climate Change. Finally, recent data is showing that the sun has a lot more to do with Global Warming Climate Change than previously thought.

The sun?!? Who knew?

So, to recap:

I need to replace my light sconce and use lightbulbs I need to recycle because they contain deadly poisons at the behest of people who burn energy like there's no tomorrow to stop something caused by the sun while for every one of us doing these things there are 7-10 others around the world doing the exact opposite.

I hate CFLs.. more expensive, and they don't put out the same light as a comparable bulb. A 13w CFL is no where close to a 60w standard bulb..With the ban coming next year, I buy a box or two of 60w or 100w bulbs, every couple trips to Mendards or Home Depot.

I like the idea of LED lights, but the prices are outrageous. I only get LED flashlights now, great for camping. They are cheap and don't break when kids drop them.

LED light bulbs could very well be the next best thing in lighting. The technology is making inroads in every market, with an LED bulb for any application. LEDs have a long list of advantages over incandescent and CFL lighting. A common complaint about compact fluorescents is the ramp-up time to full brightness. Instant-on CFLs provide light instantly, but still require time to reach full brightness. LED light bulbs provide full illumination from the moment they’re turned on. It reminds me of how compact fluorescent technology slowly dominated incandescent technology. There is a similar roadblock, as well; LEDs have outlandish high prices.